www.big-books.org. www.big-books.org. >> we've been talking with professor stephen and this is his newest book oops serving our politicians stumble. we are at the naval academy. this is book tv on c-span2. his onetime liberal ideologies and on several current and social issues next on book tv. mr. mamet delivers the 22 manhattan institute lecture at the plaza hotel in new york city. it's a little over one hour. [applause] >> what a magnificent

introduction. thank you to all of you here tonight. as thinking about a friend of mine, rest in peace, and harold when he accepted the nobel prize he wrote a rather scathing indictment of the west. i thought back to the time i was making a movie with harold and we were shooting in a white truffle chapel in a jewish neighborhood and he started reminiscing about his life when growing up over his uncle's radio shop -- he was reminiscing over growing up over his uncle's radio shop in the jewish area chapel and his magnificent radio actor voice became skittish to 1938 and his face lit up remembering those days growing

up in the warmth of the jewish ghetto of london and i thought how could harold pinter done a great the west ha when if it weren't for the united states a free of virtue in london have been killed. i felt i was kind of odd coming in miles from rendering the intersection and the cultural upbringing and then i remembered thinking when harold first started writing about politics i was a young writer in my 20s and if it isn't that a shame that this wonderful writer heads turned into an old man and all he can write is about politics. [laughter] i think what happens is one of several other greek philosophers ledbetter better known the house

led belly fighting dahuk caller in crimea studying about the great long time so that by spending the last few years is creating the study of the great long time and just as harold did to think about the most minute of human interactions is the two lines of dialogue thinking about what is going on here so i wrote this speech. [laughter] of the 2012 emmy began with a predictable around of jokes about republicans and the fact there were no republicans in hollywood that must be in hiding or lonely in deep. my question was what in the world did this partisan humor have to do with a trade show particularly with a trade show of every moment and in every way to capitalism come to the medium

developed goods and those of which they made their living to it and i quote from the catalog of an old revered clothing company that branched out of selling micmacs the sustainable popular barn owl and environmentally friendly and organics face pantry claimed glass on a is made over the course shoe. a good bet to win the world needs a novel and what is the sow will the composition that should assess us what is the nature behind the compost devotee that is the proclamation of self-government is unnecessary and one need not apply reason or restraint in making the difficult decisions that one need only spot the party line that one must do it continually. a group of celebrities did a television ad in which they pledge allegiance to obama. this may differ in the degree

but not in kind to any fascist salute and when in the world can we begin in this country pledging allegiance to human beings? [applause] i brought this a long because they wrote this great book. this is what my 13 year old child brought home from public school. are you a democrat or republican on gun control and democrat wants to restrict the number and republican wants to allow them to fight citizens without restriction. on the environment a democrat wants to make factories reduce pollution and restrict drilling for oil and park lands and a republican wants to not pass pollution laws delude cost factories money. this is in public school. if that isn't taxation without representation, i don't know what is. [applause] >> that's the left on unreasonable and inconsistent to ensure that no one will adopt

them accidentally because of their utility. they are a perfect pledge of allegiance to the lack of reason ensures the must be continually repeated as such and that every possible instance or location would be introduced by a protestation of faith or enough of the oversight. should they admit to the obsessive incantations to be repressed which is doubt buy accidentally introduced to see also the marine recruit who is or was drilled to begin each sentence response if he was instructed deutsch would offer himself for sex. this was noted by the colleges in 1921 boesh year the division will overcome by authority shocked into the compulsive confession of his willingness to submit to read as with houseguests and strangers one of the communities taxed with

establishing his bonafide unhappy family work and a fireman or religious organization in the community in short one may relax this inquisition and get on with the task. this is the most immediate effect of the benefit of community and for this the other benefits flow and accepting the community's standards and committing oneself to their trait some potential freedom of action we are not going to let the kids grow up and shoes or i am going to make a commitment i consider myself a citizen of the world as an example to accept responsibility. some treat freedom of action for increased security in a moment and the two community members share certain basic assumptions and so for their behavior is more predictable. they may violate community standards but the penalty is as the communication ostracism as and costly and so transgression of the norms is more restricted.

but time with strangers must constantly be spent establishing the elements of intimacy. our most is viewed as a family and functions almost completely in modes of behavior so long and definitely established that they become unconscious. in the family cow one grieves, praises, reprimands, apologizes, why is, demands, complains, these are the one conscious deutsch of the family familiar completely unknown and completely clear and the inclusion of the most beloved of house guests shatters the family interaction and the knowledge previously consigned to the unconscious mind must be brought to the mind of the conscious, explained altar were for the benefit of the guest which is why franklin told us they began to sink after three days. the toll and energy is a huge. they say you know when a marriage is falling apart as the husband or wife conversation progress is logically.

[laughter] he was once part jew. [laughter] it's impossible to convene the smallest and most transitory of human groups without them improvising at the can on discovery social structure which is to say culture. the culture grows in mysterious ways and has nothing to do with reason. is it reasonable for example that all americans have to say what seems to be the trouble officer? [laughter] where was it written or do they have to say we can't come to the phone right now but if you leave your name and phone number? where in the worlds are these described? the culture extemporizes itself and in response to the communal from necessity to deal with what also extemporizes the mess. he's no less the political views or the modes of organizations can derive from the limited recuring number of human

problems and human solutions. the left discovery of global warming, the sinfulness of man causing the seat to rise may also be found in genesis six. [laughter] consider taking a snapshot before the shutters clicked the focus says one, two, three. why? here's why i think in the first days can last up to three minutes so their heads were mobilized because they couldn't move or it would be fogging. they would restrict under the three minutes starting to end the would assure them because now we are done netiquette take 1,000 of the sec and but they say one, two, three. why? because the police said one, two, three. but now they are a third before the shot.

and if asked why the photographer might say to allow the subject to compose himself but why does the subject need to compose himself? this makes every amateur portrait of a life-saving having adopted a that same i am now getting my picture taken. [laughter] in the of original photograph, the original photos the sitter's looked stern and had to hold still and the shops everyone of us looks like a fool. not only is it an opinion but it persists without human intervention useful to the residual. cities each have their own culture in san francisco a greeting to a stranger is likely to be returned, and and los angeles responded to with rage. [laughter] likewise of course it can be found most readily in our jokes

or illusions and television commercials are television commercials of course and they're the most powerful and cohesive. here's a great television commercial we saw at the super bowl there's a holocaust a sometime the cities buried in rubble and leader of the trucks of them in the factors emerge one by one and the drivers get out to congratulate each other all glad to be alive passing the purchase so great. what we have here but in american myth and urban legend taken from the very school yard where we've told each other for 15 years they have a shelf life of 10 million years. [laughter] white people by the truck because it enjoys the illusion and the commonality and the

longing to the left reticules the intellect to all things may be reason through and if we sufficiently and intelligently choose to have intelligent leaders the age-old problems must disappear. but on the the celebration of the intellect, we citizens become as those houseguests dedicated to to giving out how family works and how first of all to refrain from attending each other. elkus patriotism, freedom of conscience, freedom of the exercise of legal rights which anyone takes the soap box and allegis might defend and out goes the culture but now we are stymied because we don't know how to replace those practices so the new culture has improvised and speak to no one at the airport. ride for 12 hours across the ocean and don't introduce yourself. don't talk to anybody on the elevator, keep your mouth shut because anything might offend.

the speech and response to any suggestion might offend and demand to the one you might in power in the new culture who is on the left for you yourself as you know without a culture are confused and lost. the obama campaign's 2008 change may thus be understood as a directive, the hold of which is change or sufferer. shall you stand up when the star spangled banner is some commercial demand open the door for a woman, is it permitted for whites to criticize a failed politician of his black, are terrorists entitled to the same protections enjoyed by citizens? should focus of the same sex be allowed to marry? has he or she replaced he has the pronoun but operationally the same question as they create fear as it has no idea where to look for guidance or clarification. just like the house guest walked in the least of the discussions, the insistence in deference and

all things for the mutual desire to express courtesy and both sides madd. the cultural vacuum was filled by the spontaneous leader and any and of the culturally unsettled strong bands so one unquestionably superior to themselves and their intellect and thus preserving the allegiance that must replace the structure, sacrifice and the culture. this is that the love of the left on stalin and hitler and karzai, enemy, the director by the trends someone who can believe of the mess that we haven't pivoted which is in the united states of america. [laughter] also jim jones, bernie madoff and all of those claiming by and let your faith they can supervene the natural law and if there were such a thing as historical necessity, why in the world what we have to aide?

portion of a human being but claimed they would save under us these ideologues and opportunist visionaries fugs seem to lead that they actually emerge from and right from the power and held by the mass confusion of the unbalanced group. the political impulse to the submission for all of those explained is more reasonable than out motive forms represented the government religion and culture may also be seen to the impulse buy those in extremists to seek out magic. the quiet of the psychic healer and energy for their past and the worshiper of the political strongman trade autonomy for magic. but the power of the magic feathers and beads and stimulus might the resurrection cannot be attempted without sacrifice. here the sacrifice of reason, the contemporary equivalent of

dashing the flesh to make it rain. of course it implies a supranatural recipient and an angry god and requires a strong enough priest perhaps the demigod himself to teach the acceptable forms. the political duke may be questioned by the non-applicable brother to reduce reasons why the field politician be the dictator of the pretender to god should be supported when his words are meaningless, his promise is either failed and the work is proved worthless but this raises the point as with the psychic healer it isn't the promised result for which the inflicted is brought but for the experience of the said motion itself which is the transitory truth of a society. the victim of the healer is kept in by the promise the treatment will work but will take more money, more time or believe and the victim of a demagogue about

the failure to accomplish anything promised is often schooled but the magic needs time to work and the disease was worse than previously imagined and suggesting otherwise is not only a logical but is pious. he this political deutsch just like the object of an intervention can perfect any residual doubts as rage and those that are trying to help him to read this may be understood as they seem to require the apostasy and the psychic solution. the exercise of total faith is that for which the left is paid with his autonomy. the weakening is to him equal to psychological def considered it leaves him alone for if by doubt this of identity with the be leaving group he's also of course deprived of the potential community with his opponents whom he has just recently denounced as the devil and as a social animal so prodigy is too

great or too embarrassing to those threatened with this. president obama is on television because he isn't used to the altitude in denver. he was unresponsive the president of the united states. see also the emergence in the liberal community and the spontaneous sakuntala adoption of excuses for his failure. you are juxtaposing because he is a black man. in the program needs time. the system itself is broken. the job is too big for one man and finally, you know what, bill all the same. we human beings are lonely. that's why we are interested in life and other planets and in politics. [laughter] that's why we fantasize about and about small groups, gay, black, palestinians, the handicaps as totems, this in

addition to the legitimate humanitarian concerns is that these groups are compressed by difficulties and the magnificent pure unity and available to the mass. we, the larger policy imagine that as tribes which is to say exotics enjoying all the benefits of the gift of culture which we and the larger group have wished away. these tribes, we feel, process post to things the victim seeks as political subjugation and the enemy. and the big business, the corporations, the 1% and the rich, the jews, america. this enemy is necessary not because the troubled or hateful but because their weekend. they've become weak through the constant and tolerable expenditure of energy of the improvisation of a culture if. the house guest that was previously the left is quite

literally the pledge allegiance to obama in the may encounter a rational change either from himself or from another which is insurmountable in the state they must feel the priceless appearance can enliven his resolve calling upon of his exhausted believe but upon his an exhausted courage. i would suggest we let this we imagine himself as at the bridge but it is universally read in the use is no longer of cultural currency and which of the songs of my you free man casing at columbia at the ocean, captain my captains from star spangled banner, the lord's prayer, the cottage, the communion, the mass, the deacons, the bible, the declaration of independence from the gettysburg address. those various productions of poetry, universally led 50 years ago are replaced in the brave new wiltz.

they celebrate diversity for example. where once we did not exert the practice, the suppression of its polar opposite unity, the exhortation still appearing in the claims. the english literature until the late century was largely inclusive and assumed it common knowledge of the bible, the gospel, the constitutional works of shakespeare and various poems the poets of the region and the time. there wasn't the poetry still written today but i would defy anyone here to quote one line and that is as recently as last week. and yet we remember for our entire lives that which does not by command or by appeal to the intellect which is as opposed to the political elite we all shared a member of oliver wendell holmes pulled the horse shade you hear of a wonderful one horse shay that is built in such a logical way that it ran 100 years to the day i will tell you what happened without delay.

schering the person to fix, frightening the people out of theird it all fell apart in one instant after 100 years it went all that once and all that wants nothing first, just as bubbles do when they burst. oliver wendell holmes wrote in 1958 fought in 1972 he wrote to the great empires in spain and russia, britain, each to to enter 50 years. in the empirical hegemony and the power leads to decadence and the short sleeves to short sleeves and generations from the

exploration and exploitation to the decadence request for world approval to the welfare state and squabbles over inherited wealth and the notable feature he writes of the declining nations of the loss of physical energy. both recapitulate the human individual tendencies and like the individual human involved in the predictable directions the kunin light lived to be 120 years but no longer and will decatur the predictable stages as well the family. however wealthy and the state however powerful. and now we see we in america are at the outward end of the to hundred 50 years, and we see the signs positive. we passed through the ages of outburst conquest, commerce, of unscom into left and we've come to the age of decadence. this and all employers, she writes, can be identified by the

defensiveness, pessimism, materialism, the welfare state, the dissolution of the armed forces, the weakening of religion, and the attempt to the favor in the world. he also wrote a companion essay called the search for survival in which he writes every one of us contributes to the recovery of our country by working harder, but flustering the conrad good work and that only the revival of spiritual devotion, not fashionable can inspire the selfless service and each of us can contribute by leading moral and dedicated lives and by speaking and writing in that sense and if we have no leaders we must go at it alone. in the chicago public schools, we regularly read the label was the operations of the bridge, and perhaps as in the rich, it isn't quite the time to ask how can man die better than by facing fear of love for the

actions of his brothers and the temple of his god? perhaps that isn't quite yet but it's evidence the times for sacrifice for the sake of the country into the judeo-christian values as near to the absolute privacy of the notions regarding abortion, birth control, sex education, sterilization and the rights. in looking at these, we might begin to remind us first visible signals of the change are often the mistaken for the force. the wave which we see first is the most apparent but doesn't impelled the ship, the smoke we see first is the most apparent but it doesn't involve a locomotive. the left similarly seems to be the championship of the various causes however an independent to call for the lowering of the birth rate which is one of the first of the universal signs of the national decline. see also the attendant call from the left for the learning abolition of the requirements

for citizenship. the left would say the traditional definition of such art an egregious example of american exceptional some, which is to say arrogance, but we first hour citizens of the world. but citizenship and ply as defined rights and obligations. what rights does an american have on north korea, iran, china, or for that matter indonesia and what rights does an american jew, gay or woman in chile and syria? what obligations we have to the french nation to suggest we are citizens of the world destroys our understanding of the term and weakens us at the performance of the duties of the citizen. one might say that the american power was the 1969 moon landing, and since then, we'll be successful the empire in history according to the greatest access to prosperity, happiness and public life and history have been on the decline. this decline has given as inevitable. nothing lasts forever. this period of diminishing american hegemony, however, may be one of calfee age. we are the owners of the country

and its board of directors, and we may find the strength to reasonably consider the options open to us in this confusing time, none of them is perfect. and this is a time we must make a moral choice which is to say a choice between the two flawed or bad alternatives. if we do not choose, the choice will be made for us by those uninterested at home and abroad by weakening the power of the american electorate. it's not a brief announcement our country's work of man is perfect. but it is our country to govern, defend, in july as long as we choose to set our minds to it. thank you. [applause]

there are two people of microphones raise your hand and please, wait for the microphone. we will try to get as many people as we possibly can. jim, we will start here. >> i am jim pearson. thank you very much for that awful address. thank you. let me ask you a question about the call to which you begin your address. and it's always been political to some degree in the 1950's we had ronald reagan and adolph, the hollywood ten. today we have robert redford, barbra streisand. so, you describe the culture. what is the dynamic come in your opinion, that drives it to the left? and are there any signs, perhaps in your own career, by which it might be directed before it brings us all down like the one

shady? >> well, you know, in my racket of show business in particular in hollywood we are fantasists. if you look at the people that are trying to save the world, they are trying to save it in the 30's and 40's the freeze in hollywood was she wasn't in the thirties read. okay. so the fantasies of the 30's and 40's today are saving the world in every movie and it makes sense. of [laughter] >> you are a connoisseur of the confidence man. you have given us some of the

greatest confidence men in a theater and film. jimmy is one of my favorite confidence men because teammate steve martin of a villain. i wonder as you look on the scene today how do you assess president obama as a confidence man and a panoply of confidence men, and not to put a fly in the ointment but how do you assess that from me as a confidence man? >> why don't know. we are going to work this side of the street and work - they said my daughter you are soberly and that funny and smart why don't you run for president? i don't have it in me. at the end of the george bush was trying to go and at the end of the day i was free to shoot

myself. [laughter] so there are these people in the system that spend that spend their whole life doing press and their politicians and once in a widely public servant has the capacity to be a public servant and there's time left over at the end of the day between lobbying and banking to take care of the country. and as milton friedman said, we just don't have the time to bone up on the people trying to rob us through the x corporation and rob us through the light union and the people getting a subsidy for this and of that. because we think about our ten seconds a year and they think about it all day, everyday so there is only one thing we can do and that is to cut taxes and slice the size of the government. [applause] >> because you know, who knows if they are confidence men. i don't know.

i met mitt romney. i liked everything he did. i shook his hand. and i actually grew up and i was born on the south side of chicago where obama claims to come from, born in hyde park. and i saw that whole -- i see everything through that. of course they are confidence men. next question. [laughter] we have a question here. we are reopening the revival of al pacino you have a striking place around the; american capitalism and the is no problem there. there's this great place with nothing to do with his political message but as a great artist who's written do you see yourself evil thing in some way that in some way the way that you articulate your politics and your culture is going to be

incorporated into your heart in some way? >> i don't think it's political, i certainly don't think that harold is political. the short overtly political plays with language and a couple of ways but his place which is not the place of the theater to be political. i shouldn't be here tonight actually, you know. [applause] was on a critical of capital? i don't know if i was critical. i was driving a cab at the time i wrote most of those to get and i am not driving a cab anymore. [laughter] if you are writing the same play at 65 as you were at 19, you are doing something wrong. [laughter] >> i saw heather higgins raise her hand so why don't we get a microphone to her.

>> thanks very much. when you talk about the doubt that is being suppressed by courage and a belief, and you have now come out of the political closet what are the doubts you find or the most fertile ground for you when you're talking with your colleagues trying to persuade them to have the same epiphany that you have had. what are the arguments? denied the arguments about what? >> when you are trying to explain your political transition and the understanding that you now have the you didn't used to house, where is the greatest doubt that you have the greatest success in trying to persuade others to see the world as you now see it? >> i can't persuade anybody. i don't have that power. i certainly wouldn't attempt in the play and the only people i talked to are conservatives. you are lost. you are in the wrong room.

i don't try to persuade anybody. i tell you what. i met my first conservative, friend of a friend and i never at a conservative in my life to read on was impressed by him because he answered questions. he was very compost, and he was very patient and he was very simple. he was entering dress and he tried to gauge his responses to the level of my request and he was very welcoming, and of course i don't understand how anything is. but he is so polite. [laughter] that may be there is something in his conviction. the old argument of the great prize to veto -- the great rabbis not because his argument was better but i don't think that -- i really think that breaking free of the bubble is

terrible. i think it is breaking free of the addiction and it starts in the public schools and the private schools, and it starts a net one half of the media. and it's dreadfully hard to break away especially as the country spreads itself into political enclaves but one goes through one's whole life never meeting a conservative or liberal if she were on the other count. so, any of us that have had a wonderful experience of trying to convince a liberal by a reason have come to appreciate the value of the trip. [laughter] we have a question in the corner. >> i am a big fan particularly the opening scene where the structure is laid out. so first, a cadillac, second prize, surprise you or five years. i think what you gave tonight

was a cadillac of the speech, a black cadillac, one that might go in the front procession of a funeral. is their anything that you might be able to tell us? i accept your diagnosis and prognosis but could you give some speech into what we could do to actually keep this experiment in self-government going? meter even after you and your last statement on how it can start in education. >> on go through it all day. my wife and i got a 13-year-old at home and we are trying to find him a school that is not in the pond. i think it's important to tell the truth. one doesn't have to be politically confrontational. it's not productive and i don't think it is polite, but i think once in awhile when we have the opportunity of someone comes to us and says you know what would you explain your positions to me

as i assure all of you do happen to be conservative i would be happy to please tell me where i am wrong and other than that i don't know what we can do because i haven't slept in the last 50 years i don't know if anybody here has and it's enough already to but i don't think it's the most important election i think is the most important since 1860. i really do. [applause] hispanico kpp we will get together questions. >> why aren't there more conservative playwrights and is their anything that can be done about that or is that essentials -- is that just inherent to the condition of the nature of playwriting? you can't read playwrights. you really can't. i knew joe who was a wonderful guy and he kept shaking down the street and the government and

the rich people, anybody that would listen in to the helm of eskimos. he did it with an all female cast. he would do anything. he didn't care. but that's not the place for politics. and unfortunately, the contemporary theater comes out of the university system. i did was very fortunate when william petersen and dennis and all these guys were all kids in chicago, 22-years-old we had a theater company. we didn't know any better. but the kids nowadays, i think that they are doing it on the internet and they study the theater and they are awarded for doing theater in the university's which are the of liberal arts university stutter democrat so rather than having the experience of the free

market you have to please the audience and have an unfortunate experience of trying to please the teacher you pick up a collection and who's going to be in the battle of this season so we can come back on the fact that xyz our people, too and feel good about ourselves. you've got to have a place to -- you have to have a place to fail. a good clue. you ever look at these resume and receive a one the following play competitions xyz, you don't have to read the play, they can't write. [applause] >> we have a question -- >> to follow-up on that i'd love to get your opinion on the work of "the new york times" esteemed colleague tony kushner. >> she's going to work his side

of the street and i'm going to work mine. he's a very good writer. we have a very different political -- we have very different political views. you know, that's the great thing about free speech. [applause] i get to write -- to put on my plate if i can find enough suckers to invest in them and so does he. and to some the audience, glad i said it. [laughter] you know, we will what that out, we will fight it out and prosperity will be its own judge and what will that mean to all of us? we will all be gone. big deal. >> this is a question over here somewhere. >> yes. why don't you grab that? >> my name is phil, and i was

interested in when you were saying about the social animals and the communication. i was wondering if you had i guess you're intellectual conversion early in life before you established and a little bit older would you have been more reticent to be vocal about -- >> you bet. [laughter] >> okay. good to know. [applause] >> i don't think i'm stupid. [laughter] >> that's a different thing. somebody going out and you have a husband or kid to support. sometimes you've got to -- look, the jewish tradition says the law of the land is the law so sometimes it's a good idea to keep your head down and sometimes it's not and is it

true i had a position such that i felt immune to a certain amount of harmful criticisms? yes, that is true. and had it happened earlier, i don't know. that is an excellent question. thank you. >> question back here in the center. a quick question. do you have a community organizer, and if so, do you know what his name is? >> i couldn't -- i'm sorry. >> would you repeat the question. >> the question is do you have a community organizer, and so, do you know what his name is? >> a community organizer and do you know what his name is? >> dubow have a community organizer? listen, i grew up and all of my parents knew salles wilensky and the organizations. a community organizer is just a name for a thug. have you read the